I don’t normally take a weekend trip for portraits, but this was a little different. First of all, it was in my hometown, where I could stay with my parents. Second, despite being from the Monticello Wine Trail area, I’d never actually done a portrait session in one of the gorgeous vineyards that surround the city. Third, it was for Eva.

Not only did I used to babysit Eva, her mom babysat me. I think I was actually a baby when Cindy and I first met, so we go way back. Cindy had asked me around December about doing Eva’s senior pictures. We decided on doing them in September in a vineyard. We eventually chose Keswick Vineyards, where I actually had my own senior portrait session. Eva and I explored the vines and the pond while our moms caught up on the porch over a glass of wine.

Before Eva and Cindy arrived, my mom and I took a walk through the vines and marked the numbers of the ones that looked like they had the most grapes so I could come back to those with Eva. What I wasn’t expecting was for a whole section of one row to turn red in mid-September.

Eva had a whole bag of outfits that fit a fall color scheme, so we had fun looking through that to pick out which ones to use. I loved the burgundy against the blue and green of the landscape!

Not pictured: me straddling the fence like a horse. She's much taller than me so standing on the ground wasn't really an option.

I had so much fun with Eva's session and I hope to come back to Virginia for more vineyard sessions!

If you're interested in a portrait or headshot session in the Greenville, SC or Charlottesville, VA area, click here to get in touch.

Tracy and I did a session for fun with a few outfits we both liked. I ended up getting some of my favorite pictures I’ve had in a while!

We went to Furman University in Greenville, which has a variety of cool backgrounds.

I had fun pairing outfits with backgrounds. Some of these pairings were planned and some were not. Here we have green and gold. The latter comes from the angle of the sun at that time of day. We thought this part of campus looked like something out of a Disney movie.

I changed the angle between the previous one and the next one just a little and there’s a huge difference in color. They both have the similar minor edits (like cropping), but the second one looks like it has a Photoshop layer over it. This is why I love shooting right before the sunset is supposed to start.

Here we have bright blue and almost white. This combination was planned, but we were so lost and couldn't remember how to get back to this fountain. She’s actually facing a really orange sunset, which reflected some orange onto her.

I like the red against the green here, and the vine design on the railing just happened to work perfectly with the style of the dress.

Here we have my favorite color combination in photography: red, blue, and green. It looks like more of a December picture than a May picture.

Although I was looking for the other fountain to use with the dark blue dress, the shots by this fountain ended up being some of my favorites. It reminds me of Greece for some reason, not that I've ever been there.

That's all for now! Hopefully we get an opportunity to do another session soon. But who says we need a reason?

Also, I'm perfectly happy with going to Furman for another session if anyone wants to do that, even if you're not affiliated with Furman at all.